“Being” before “doing” is God’s order in successful Missional Living!

Step #1 in reaching our co-workers, neighbors, friendship groups, fellow-students, etc, with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ is simple to say but the challenge-of-a-lifetime for the committed Christ-follower: It’s all about ‘being’ not ‘doing’; it’s being ‘right’ with our Savior one minute at a time; it’s being in fellowship with the Lord all the time; it’s being a man or woman who makes Jesus the Lord each day; it’s being filled with the Holy Spirit; it’s just ‘being’ in the presence of God – walking with God! (1 John 1:5-10)

I must confess that ‘doing’ is much easier than ‘being!’ It takes daily, moment-by-moment discipline to ‘be’ all God wants me to ‘be’ on the inside – and that’s hard! Our battle is against the flesh and against the enemy who does not want us to be in constant relationship with Christ. The devils intent is to destroy that sweet relationship with God through Jesus Christ (John 10:10).

Before we can become a ‘doer of the Word’ we must strive each day just to ‘be a child of God in right relationship with our Heavenly Father ’.

For me, it means starting the day by talking to the Lord in prayer and worship. I use the “Lord’s Prayer” as an outline for my daily prayer and sing songs of worship and praise during my prayer time. This intimate time also includes confession, repentance, and seeking the control of the Holy Spirit.

When I was working at Bellevue Honda, I would use the 35-minute commute to have this special prayer/worship time with the Lord.

Unless we are walking with God in the ‘inner person’ we will not be able to ‘shine for Jesus’ as a missionary at our workplace! Our goal must be that when we walk into the job (school, gym, etc) it is obvious that we have been with Jesus because the ‘shine’ of joy, peace & love’ is all over us! This will draw people to Jesus through us!

I KNOW this is true, because when I fail to discipline myself and ‘be’ the man of God, my attitude and countenance shows it and people say, “What’s the matter with you, Ken?”

My dear friend for 19 years, Jim Quayle, is my living example of ‘being’ before ‘doing!’ His is a true “Missional Liver” and God used him at his workplace for 28 years in the lives of countless men and women! Jim sees the vision and he and his wife, Jan, are faithful team-mates in prayer and financial support.

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2 responses to this post.

Amen!! Ken and Diane, you have always been so special and meaningful in my life. God truly is in you and comes out of you! I love reading these posts and I feel reading these posts and having a group of support helps with the day by day and hour by hour and minute by minute helps to get the focus correct and in place and to carry on the work the Lord has for us. I love you both and keep on keeping on!!